


Mornings

by florisuga



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 17:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6915811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florisuga/pseuds/florisuga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kihyun takes a sip of his coffee and, with reluctance, opens a link on his tablet to scroll through the morning's headlines.</p><p>"What a depressing way to start your day," Minhyuk tells him during a lull in customers as he's cleaning the espresso machine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mornings

Despite how hard Kihyun tries to keep life _normal_ , peace remains fleeting. He has been living a quiet life for a while now, not out of desire but necessity. The change in the rest of the world since mutations came into existence has been rapid and disorienting and dangerous; the lifelong lessons and information Kihyun grew up learning in school had less to do with worldly knowledge and more to do with when and how to bite his tongue. This is why he has grown to appreciate the few moments in the morning before anyone turns on the television--it's the brief time when he does not have to be told again that he has to learn how to control himself.

On the days when he has to leave early, he keeps the television off, the newspaper discarded, and leaves Hyunwoo and Hoseok in an understanding kind of silence.

("Ignorance is dangerous, though," Hyunwoo told him, once. And then he disappeared down the street, out of contact until that evening when he helped ensure that Kihyun safely got onboard his bus to class.)

Kihyun takes a sip of his coffee and, with reluctance, opens a link on his tablet to scroll through the morning's headlines. The most prominent one is about a group that has dedicated themselves to studying mutation use patterns in order to target and track specific individuals. Another one, further down the page, mentions the recent kidnapping of some local mutants.

"What a depressing way to start your day," Minhyuk tells him during a lull in customers as he's cleaning the espresso machine.

A sudden, unexpected but familiar feeling of ease begins to wash over Kihyun, and he takes another, longer sip of his coffee as a show of appreciation. "It wouldn't be so depressing if you did this to the whole city."

Minhyuk shakes his head and sighs. "I'm not a miracle worker," he says. Kihyun watches the way Minhyuk bites at the corner of his lip before it quirks up too high, and he hears the humor in Minhyuk's voice as he adds, "But I think there's one who lives down the street."

Kihyun closes his web browser once he's seen his fill of advertisements for the articles about what people can do to protect themselves from mutants, and skimmed over too many comments showing support for tracking mutation use. "What do you think of all of this?"

"I think," Minhyuk says as another customer walks in, "you should get off the internet."

Kihyun tucks his tablet away in his bag, and takes a breath.

**Author's Note:**

> Part of [the Primordium 2016](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/the_PRIMORDIUM2016/profile).


End file.
